


The Crane Game

by trulywicked



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Bad Pick-Up Lines, Draco Is Bad At Flirting, Fluff, HP: EWE, Humor, M/M, Pining, porn as a wooing gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 08:02:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10827162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trulywicked/pseuds/trulywicked
Summary: Every Valentines Day found Harry running from origami cranes. This year he's finally hit his limit and if Malfoy doesn't quit he's leaving Hogwarts.





	The Crane Game

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a gift for a friend from Y gallery years ago. Just now decided to post it here.

There were only two seemingly innocuous things in this world that could send Harry Potter running away like a frightened deer this time of year. The first was any being dressed like Cupid that might even seem to be heading his way with a letter, that had it's roots in his second year at Hogwarts and everyone understood exactly why he wished to avoid a repeat.

The other was a small folded flapping paper bird that had a tendency to flutter into his office or classroom once or twice a day for seven days starting on the seventh of February. It started the first year he'd agreed to accept the post of professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts at the surprisingly young age of twenty-one and had continued to happen in the seven years since. It had become something that was a bit of a running joke. A six foot tall, adult man, who'd defeated the most feared dark wizard of their time, running like a scared little girl from a origami crane that was flapping after him for all it's worth. Of course if anyone could ever see what was on the inside of the paper crane they might better understand why Harry ran like the hounds of hell were on his heels.

Harry ducked and weaved through the student exodus after classes, not sure if he wanted to hex someone when he noticed that the students only parted _after_ he'd passed, making the way of the flapping paper crane that much easier than his. The muffled laughter also irked him heavily. It was only during this week that the detentions he gave reached Snape proportions but it didn't seem to deter the students from laughing at him. If they weren't so embarrassing, and somewhat obscene, he'd be tempted to post the notes for everyone to gawk at so they'd understand why he ran from them. Not that it ever did any good. For every crane he managed to avoid, ten more showed up in his private quarters.

He reached his sanctuary corridor of the Room of Requirement, paused long enough that the crane caught up, snatched the blasted thing out of the air, then paced to get the room to open for him. He shut the door with a quiet snap and, before he could talk himself out of it, unfolded the crane to look at the drawing and short note inside.

His cheeks flushed bright red and he crumpled the paper into a ball. The only things positive he could ever say about these fucking notes was that, in the years since the very first paper crane was blown his way, the sender had improved his artistic skills greatly. From stick figures throwing circles standing as rocks at a badly drawn representation of him to...this. He glanced back down at the crumpled paper. There, now hidden from view, was a drawing of himself bent over a log in some forest with fucking Malfoy pounding into him from behind. Beside it was a scripted note, **_'I've got the hot dog and you got the buns so baby let's cook out and I'll cum in.'_** The problem was it was actually well drawn, to the point that if it were less explicit you could hang the damned thing on the wall proudly. As it was however...

Harry drew his wand and pointed it at the paper, "Incendio!" He watched as the paper burst into flames, taking the obscene image with it. The next hour or so was spent sending various curses and spells at a dummy spelled to look like one Draco 'pain in the arse' Malfoy. He could handle the other man with grace and patience during the rest of the year. Truth be told during the rest of the year Draco wasn't that bad. Still snarky, but Harry had found that he'd grown to enjoy someone who could be so sneakily clever, still arrogant, but tolerably so considering that he'd shifted from being arrogant in his place in society to his skills and Harry had to admit Draco was good at what he did, and still able to skim out of trouble with ease, he was also quieter, calmer, and his tenure as Snape's apprentice had given him a much needed dose of stability and maturity.

Any other time of year, Draco was a good conversationalist, shockingly good at simple flirting, though that discomfited Harry he also found it somewhat flattering, and at his worst tended to stand just a bit too close so that Harry could feel the heat from the blond's body and occasionally brushed up against him in ways that weren't quite kosher. That was any other time of the year.

The week before Valentine's Day however, some perverted demon seemed to take over and Malfoy got downright obnoxious in his flirting and then sent these notes, once or twice a day, ten times if Harry managed to avoid one. Always of himself and Harry in some sort of intimate encounter and always with a dirty note beside it. It was maddening, insulting, and Harry was man enough to admit it was disappointing.

Any other time of year Harry found himself contemplating what it might be like if he took Malfoy up on one of the simple flirts but by the time he managed to work himself up to do more than contemplate, the seventh of February rolled around and he received a perverted drawing. It made him think that Malfoy was just playing a game with him. Just another way of getting even with 'Potty' for what went on in their fifth and sixth years. Then after the fourteenth he'd revert to his previous manner and it would take a solid six months for Harry to start contemplating again.

He just didn't _get_ it! If Malfoy was at all serious why would he send such obscene notes with what were the worst pick up lines Harry had ever heard in his life? Merlin, Valentine's Day was supposed to be more about love than sex wasn't it? So why did Malfoy insist on the perverted drawings and notes?

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Draco Malfoy hissed in frustration as Potter ran from yet another one of his notes. He'd been after the stubborn man for _years_ , and though he’d tried to move on after ample evidence the brunette wasn’t interested it just wasn’t possible. Every attempt failed miserably as he was forever comparing everything the others did to what and how Potter did things. Of course his attempts to get Potter weren’t going so well either.

He tried being subtle and slow, standing too close, speaking too huskily and with slight innuendo, and just basically conveying his interest in small ways throughout the year but Potter never said or did anything to indicated he even registered the subtle interest showed. So Draco used the excuse of the extreme shows of affection and lust that Valentine’s Day seemed to require to send blatant ‘I want you damn it’ messages to Potter. Who literally ran from them. What else could he do?

Draco muttered vile curses and headed back to his chamber to draw another message, perhaps one would be better received if it showed Harry on the receiving end of the pleasure instead of Draco appearing to take pleasure from him?

\------------------------------------------------------------

Harry felt his face flame hot as he stared at today’s crane message. He was laid out on the head table with Malfoy alternately licking his nipples and torso after dribbling some liquid over it or sucking him off. The note scrawled in the margin today read, **_‘Baby, you’re so fine, I want to pour milk all over you and make you part of my complete breakfast.’_**

Once again he crumpled the note up and set it ablaze, his face still red as a lobster and his body, ignoring the protests of his mind, uncomfortably hard. He got up to head to his chambers for an ice cold shower, cursing talented perverts the entire way.

\------------------------------------

The next crane actually found him as he was stepping _out_ of the next day’s cold shower and he snatched the madly flapping folded paper from the air and opened it, damn near choking on air when he saw the drawing within. Following pattern it was him and Malfoy, completely naked, both aroused. This time the setting was the familiar mermaid that decorated Prefect’s bathroom and Malfoy had him sitting on the edge of the pool sized tub while the blond stood within the shallows. Harry swallowed thickly as he watched the sketchy Draco press his cock against the sketched Harry's and rubbed them together as steam billowed and water frothed. His body once again began to ignore his mind's emphatic statements that this was nasty and dirty and not at all something that he should like, and despite the cold shower having just ended, his penis was tenting the towel slung around his waist.

And as per usual there was the horrid pick-up line, **_'Can I turn you on like a faucet? Set to HOT?'_**

He slammed the drawing down onto the bathroom counter and stalked into his bedroom to spell some clothes on, thankful that robes were handy for hiding things like an excited libido. He then stormed from his room and went up to the Headmistress' office. He barked out the password, "Hippogriff Feathers," and stepped inside much to McGonagall's surprise.

"Professor Potter. Is there something I can help you with?"

"As a matter of fact Headmistress, yes there is. You can get Malfoy to _stop_ sending me those bloody obscene notes every bleeding Valentine's Week. If I get one more, just one more bad pick-up line next to a pornographic drawing, from him I'll leave the school. I quite honestly can not take it anymore!" He slumped into the squashy chair before her desk with a harassed sigh at her shocked expression. "Minerva it's driving me barmy. I don't know why he does it but every year since I took the DADA post it's flapping paper cranes with perverted drawings inside them twice a day for seven days in February. Believe me when I say you don't wish to know exactly what those drawings contain."

The Headmistress took in the tired and vaguely disappointed expression on the twenty-eight year old professor and nodded. "I will speak with Mr. Malfoy Harry, I give you my word."

He gave her a wry smile. "Thank you."

\-----------------------------------------

Minerva knocked perfunctorily before she stepped into Draco Malfoy's chambers, prompting a blond brow to raise curiously.

"Headmistress McGonagall, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Your harassment of Professor Potter. It has to stop Mr. Malfoy. He's threatened to leave the school should he receive...how did he put it? Oh yes, 'one more bad pick-up line next to a pornographic drawing' from you."

Draco froze, a cloud of depression already seeming to form over him as he realized Harry was that disgusted with him. _'Well of course he is. Perfect bloody Saint Potter would never fall prey to the advances of a former Death Eater now would he?'_

Minerva sighed and went to tap Draco on the back of the head, drawing a shocked gray glance. "You shoot yourself in the foot every year Malfoy. Harry is not precisely used to the honest amorous attentions of others, not from anyone who wants _him_ and not The-Man-Who-Lived-Twice. It takes him nearly a year to decide if you're serious and then you ruin it by sending him things like," she swept the drawing Draco had just finished, her cheeks going red at the image of Draco tied to a bed with Harry riding him, "this. He thinks you're mocking him. I realize that you have never had any sort of experience with a normal courting but you would be better served by taking a softer approach that lays your heart on the line."

He paled and she chuckled.

"Yes I know, perish the thought that you make yourself vulnerable to hurt. Yet you expect Harry to make himself vulnerable to you? No one has ever treasured Harry, ever made him feel like he's treasured, not even his friends. He has always been used in one way or another and your notes only make him feel as if you view him as an object to be used as well. Show him that's not the case and you may very well get precisely what you desire. In any case I am quite fed up with you dancing around each other so either win him the right way Draco or cease trying altogether."

Her piece said she clipped out of the room, leaving Draco there to contemplate. He looked at the most recent drawing then flicked it into the fire before drawing another parchment out and starting on a new, different scene. Different from any thus far sent. Perhaps McGonagall was correct and it was time to put an end to this ridiculous dance.

\--------------------------------------------

Harry sighed as a crane flapped into his room on Valentine's Day. He'd had two days of peace and thought that Draco had finally given up on tormenting him. Apparently he was wrong. He watched with trepidation as the, larger than usual, crane lit on his reading table. He picked the crane up and set about unfolding it, not really certain why he did as he knew what would greet him. He should have just thrown it in the fire but he didn't.

A gasp parted his lips as he saw what lay on the paper this time. No pornographic image, nor was there any hint of a horrible pick up line. What greeted him was a beautifully rendered sketch of a dragon curled protectively around a drawn version of him. The dragon would occasionally nuzzle sketch Harry, who looked more than content to be in the coils of this dragon, affectionately. After a few moments the dragon shifted and became Draco, who still held Harry protectively only in his arms this time. The elegant hands rose and brushed dark hair away from the sketched Harry's face almost hesitantly as if afraid he'd disappear like a soap bubble as soon as touched. The look on Draco's face was one of aching tenderness as he looked down on Harry then brushed his lips over the lightening bolt scar.

Harry felt his heart clench in longing for such tenderness as his gaze dropped to the block of writing beneath the picture.

__

_****_

'Harry, I do hope you don't mind me using your given name but Potter is too cold for this letter, it was brought to my attention that my previous attempts at convincing you to give me a chance were illconcieved.'

_****_

__****  
  


The brunette snorted at that understatement but continued reading, fascinated and hoping that Draco was going to offer a good enough explanation or at least give him a good enough reason to take a risk.

__

_****_

'I'll apologize if you want me to but I can't help but want you, you are rather irritatingly attractive you know. But I don't just want you in my bed Harry. It's been seven years since you came to teach here and in those seven I've not even looked at another person as I do you. I can't bring myself to do so and believe me I've tried. It would be so much easier if all I wanted from you was a few fantastic shags, then I could seduce you and move on. But I don't just want your body, don't just want you in my bed.

_****_

I want you, all of you.

_****_

I want the noble, stupidly heroic Gryffindor who was fool enough to take on the evilest cretins our world has seen.

_****_

I want the sneaky, clever, almost-Slytherin who managed to steal my family's wands from my keeping.

_****_

I want the shy, stammering, blushing, clueless man who doesn't know how to take a compliment or even when one's been given.

_****_

I want the bold, smirking bastard who can look me in the eye and tell me just what he thinks of my pureblood status and riches, which isn't much apparently.

_****_

I want the crazy, half-cocked impulsive man who makes the impossible possible.

_****_

I want the cautious, hesitant creature who still can't stand the dark, don't think I haven't noticed the light that always burns behind your door and in your window every night Harry because I have.

_****_

I want the tenderhearted fool who cried for a crazy old house-elf and I want the hot-tempered man who had the balls to use the Crucio on Bellatrix.

_****_

I want you Harry. All of you. Not just the parts you share with the world but every secret bit of yourself that you hide away. I want to hold them to me and horde them away and destroy any one else who might try to take a peek.

_****_

You haunt my dreams, both waking and sleeping. I swear every time I close my eyes I see yours, very nearly glowing with the life and emotion you hold out for everyone to see.

_****_

I hate that you know. That you give so much of yourself and get so little in return. I want to march up to the people who dare to ignore a kindness from you and demand they thank you, demand they give you your proper due. Not that any but a Malfoy could ever truly give you all you deserve but they should at least endeavor to try.

_****_

I see you in every bloody thing. Every time I turn a corner I see something that reminds me of you. I am forever comparing others to you and finding them distinctly lacking.

_****_

Not to say you don't have faults, you do, you absolutely do and I'm just as fucking enamoured of them as I am of your virtues, Circe save me.

_****_

Damn you Harry you've made me fall in love with you and you don't even see it. You're all I think about, all I can see, taste, hear. You're in my bloody throat and I'm drowning in you.

_****_

I'm drowning in you, won't you save me?

_****_

I'll be waiting at the Quidditch pitch until midnight Harry, if you want to give it a go, want to see if I'm worth a risk.

_****_

If not, if you don't even find me slightly interesting or worth a go, I'll never again send you a crane and I'll even stop flirting with you the rest of the year. You'll be well and truly free of me.

_****_

The Quaffle is in your hands Harry. It's up to you what you do with it.

_****_

Most Sincerely,  
Draco Damn-Me-For-A-Lovesick-Fool Malfoy'

_****_

__****  
  


Harry couldn't help but chuckle. The letter was pure Draco Malfoy, arrogant and somewhat bad tempered yet...soft in a uniquely Draco way. His lips curved up and his fingers traced over the moving sketch in wonder. In his hands he held something that could utterly humiliate Draco if he was so inclined. Draco was laying himself vulnerable in Harry's hands and nothing could have proven more just how serious Draco's intentions were despite the previous notes.

The only question was if Harry was willing to risk the blond changing his mind. He glanced down at the drawing again, seeing himself held as if precious in Draco's arms and found his decision made for him. He pulled on his heavy winter cloak and headed out to the Quidditch pitch.

He paused in the shadow of the stands, still hidden from the blond's gaze as he watched Draco pace an area that appeared to be under a warming charm with a small picnic laid out. Every once in a while Malfoy would glance nervously up at the moon then down at a pocket watch before resuming his pacing. The further evidence of Draco's honest interest soothed the jumping in his stomach and he walked out of the shadows.

"Draco."

The blond spun and stared for a minute at the way the moonlight shone down on the brunette, gilding him in silver light. The he shook himself out of his idiotic stupor. "Harry. You came."

Harry walked closer until he was inside the warm charmed area and could move his cloak off his shoulders. "I did." He stood shifting uncertainly. Now that he was here what should he _do_?

Draco solved that problem by stepping closer, flags of color riding high on his cheeks. "Does that mean you want to...try?"

Harry met the cool gray eyes. "I liked what I saw in that drawing. I liked seeing you...seeing what the letter said you feel for me. I don't...I don't really know if I can return them but I think I could. In time. So yes. I want to try. If you can rein in that pornographic art streak." He frowned at the blond.

Draco pouted playfully. "Oi it's erotica not pornography. I just get...impatient as you well know. I kept waiting for you to pick up the small signals but you never did so I," he shrugged.

"Decided to be a perverted bastard?" Harry drawled incredulously.

"Well I thought you needed a bigger hint. I'm not exactly well versed in fluffy romance you know."

"Funny, you pulled it off wonderfully with the letter." Harry moved to stand in front of Draco, barely an inch separating their chests. "And this little picnic seems rather romantic to me."

"Good. Because I'll have you know I spent a solid hour reading for something to do that wasn't positively girly." Draco leaned closer until their noses nearly touched. "Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you be my, dear Merlin I can't believe I'm about to use the asinine term but, will you be my boyfriend?"

Harry's lips curved in amusement and the stirrings of affection. "Yes."

"And Harry?"

"Yes?"

"May I kiss you? I've been wanting to for a long time now."

Harry's answer was to press his mouth to Draco's, a smile still on his lips as the blond lifted those elegant hands to cradle his head as he took control of a the long, slow, shallow kiss. Just taking a taste to seal the new relationship for now. There would be hotter, deeper kisses later. He pulled back and gave Harry a soft, rare smile. "Join me for chocolate covered strawberries in the moonlight?"

Harry licked his lips and grinned. "I'd love to."

\---------------------------------

The next year rolled around and, much to the disappointment of the students and several staff members, Harry no longer ran from the paper cranes that fluttered into his office, not just on the week of Valentine's Day but randomly throughout the year. Instead he looked up and smiled before letting the origami cranes land in the palm of his hand.

The reactions he had when reading whatever was held within the cranes varied. Sometimes it would be a soft smile, sometimes a laugh, and sometimes he'd blush and stuff the note in a drawer. Every time though he'd always make a crane of his own and send it back to his boyfriend, who never failed to smirk like he owned the world when his Harry continued to play the crane game with him.


End file.
